Thursday, August 12, 2010

What we knees to know

Twins knees to know:Jose Mijares goes on the 15-day disabled list with his knee injury. I've seen nothing on whether he needs surgery or how long he's expected to be out, but he's clearly not going to pitch for a couple of weeks at least.

Jeff Manship got the callup. What I expect: Manship takes the long-man role. Glen Perkins, who figured to inherit that burden (all this is assuming that Kevin Slowey's elbow is not going to keep him from starting this weekend) will become the second lefty in the bullpen, with Ron Mahay assuming Mijares' spot as the primary LOOGY.

I can hear you groaning about that. But lefties are only hitting .230/.250/.295 against Mahay. The damage has come from right-handed hitters. He's actually been more effective than Mijares against lefties.

And that said, if Mijares is out for the year, I would expect the Twins to scour the waiver wire for a lefty reliever, because off last night, it's difficult to have much faith in Perkins.

Bill James did an elaborate age-to-age comparison between Jones and Eddie Mathews (it's in the 2010 edition of the Bill James Gold Mine) and concluded that Jones was slightly superior to Mathews — who was a great player.